US pools go without lifeguards amid labor shortage
INDIANAPOLIS — Manager Ashley Ford strode the perimeter of one of Indianapolis’ five open swimming pools, monitoring kids as they jumped off a diving board or careened into the water from a curved slide. Four lifeguards, whistles at the ready, watched from their tall chairs stationed around the water.
With a dozen of the city’s pools shuttered due to a lifeguard shortage, families sometimes line up more than an hour before the one at Frederick Douglass Park opens, Ford said. Many days, it reaches capacity.
A national lifeguard shortage exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted communities such as Indianapolis to cut back on pools and hours. In other spots around the United States, swimming areas go without attendants.
That’s left some Americans with fewer or riskier options, even as a significant part of the nation endures a second heat wave in as many weeks. Public health experts say the risk of drowning decreases significantly when lifeguards are present.
“That’s my biggest thing, is making everybody safe,” Ford said.
The American Lifeguard Association estimates the shortage impacts one-third of U.S. pools. Bernard J. Fisher II, director of health and safety at the association, expects that to grow to half of all pools by August, when many teenage lifeguards return to school.
“It is a disaster,” Fisher said. Summer shortages aren’t unusual, but U.S. pools are also dealing with the fallout from earlier in the pandemic, when they closed and lifeguard certification stopped, Fisher said. Starting pay lags behind many other jobs, though some cities are ramping up incentives.
Indy Parks and Recreation has 100 lifeguards on staff this year when normally it would have double that, said Ford, who was worked for the agency for 20 years. Even as lifeguards from closed neighboring pools bulk up the open facilities, pools in Indianapolis must still close for an hourlong lunch and cleaning break each day.